“He’s a walking work of art, that's why his puppies sell for so much. He's our baby and he's a legend.”

His unique, technicolor patterning is down to the fact he has the “merle” gene, which generates mottled patches of colour and can also create blue or odd-coloured eyes and affect skin pigment.

Eric and Natasha have been breeding dogs for seven years but four years ago they decided they wanted to breed so-called ‘exotics’ and so purchased a standard merle female bully.

Aftermath was the first dog to be created by breeding they female merle with a double XL bully, born weighing only 2lbs.

While breeding merle dogs is now commonplace, at the time it was controversial since the merle gene has been associated with various health issues including deafness, blindness, sun sensitivity and skin cancer.

These defects are rare in dogs with only one merle gene, but the risk skyrockets in double merles.

Eric said: “You should never breed two merles, and we wouldn’t. But we were the first ones to take a standard merle and breed it to a double XL bully.

“He was born a singleton which means he was the only puppy in the litter.

“When we first did the breeding a lot of people were against merles, we got a lot of hate from almost every major kennel, but nearly all of those kennels are now breeding merles themselves.”

However, Eric and Natasha’s decision was soon vindicated, with huge offers pouring in for the striking-looking puppy.

“As soon as we got him out of the c-section and posted a picture, people were already offering us $30,000 for him,” Eric said.

Aftermath’s pictures have now gone viral several times, with one photo gaining more than 700,000 views on its first day, and Mega Built Bullies co-founder Natasha says he “literally stops traffic” when they walk him in town.

“Some of his photos have been shared over a million times on Instagram, he's produced huge 15 pup litters, his semen has been frozen and sent all over the world. His puppies sell for $10,000 and up and his stud fee is the same.

“He made over $200,000 per year for a couple of years, and some of his bigger sons have been sold to Europe.

“We have had people offer us big money for Aftermath, but he’s too special to us, he’s literally priceless.

“We knew he would make himself a name and a legend, and he sure did that.

“He's majestic, he's got the sweetest temperament. He made our name worldwide, he helped us get everything we have today.”